The Old Order Amish are a conservative, anabaptistic religious community of Swiss origin in the USA. They practise absolute pacifism and lead a life free of hostility and aggression. Depression, however, is as much as three times more frequent in Amish populations. In order to study the possible relationship between hostility and depression, we investigated 43 Amish people, using the Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory and the Beck Depression Inventory. As expected, the total hostility score was significantly lower and the depression score significantly higher in comparison to the normal population. The positive correlation between the two scores (0.45; p < or = 0.002) indicates that the hypothesized reciprocal relationship between hostility and depression is unlikely in the Old Order Amish.